[Ardour-Users] daisychaining firepods?

[Giso Grimm]

Arnold Krille wrote:
> Am Dienstag, 15. April 2008 schrieb ::surian:::
>> It's possible to use more than one presonus firepod to record with ardour
>> 16, or maybe 24 channels (using 3 of then)?
>> If yes, how simple is that to configure? Have anyone tried and saw it work?
>> We need to record 24 channels here in brazil..
> 
> As far as ppalmers told me it is simply: plugging them all to the same 
> fw-bus... ffado (and freebob) automatically join them for a big device. And 
> it should be sample synced via the bus-clock. But you can also add a 
> spdif-chain and have the second and third sync to the spdif of the first...
> 
>> I was thinking of using an rme hdsp 9652+3 behringer ada8000
>> could the firepods be a better choice?
> 
> Behringer mostly means a noise-generator with some added electronics. For 
> professional recordings I would not use them.

Once I made a detailed evaluation of Behringer ADA8000 and RME ADI8 Pro
(and some other converters). The noise (both input and output) of
ADA8000 is in the same dimension as the noise of RME ADI8 Pro (2 dB
worse). A somewhat more relevant issue is the non-linear distortion at
the input, which is almost no distortion for the ADI8 Pro, and -50 to
-60 dB for the ADA8000. The frequency response of ADA8000 shows slightly
more ripple (below 0.1 dB). I can provide more details of-list.

As far as I can hear and see, the ADA8000 can be used as an almost
professional converter in most conditions; most mics and almost any
acoustical environment will create more noise than the converter. I
agree though that with some very good microphones it might make sense to
use better converters and mainly mic preamps.

I use RME hdsp9652 with 3 ADA8000 and I am satisfied in most recording
conditions.

Giso

> 
> And when compared the presonus firepod is _way_ better!
> 
> Arnold